Toronto Maple Leafs Draft Recap: Hard Not to Be Happy

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the NHL Entry Draft this weekend with a list of important things that needed to get done.

Roughly 24 hours now after the final pick was made, and it appears as if most of them were.

The Maple Leafs sit with more cap space at this very moment than when the draft began. Their queue of pending RFAs, which previously stood at three, has since been whittled down to one. And despite lacking a first-round selection (we’ll get to the topic of first rounders in a bit) this year, Kyle Dubas & Co. are leaving Vancouver with a fresh batch of comparatively valuable prospects of which to groom in the years to come.

What more could you ask for? To accomplish all of that in one weekend is cause for celebration.

Ridding the cap of Patrick Marleau‘s $6.25 million albatross was, far and away, the most pressing piece of business on a hectic weekend. Given the Maple Leafs’ contention window and the players who are still unsigned ahead of free agency, this team simply could not have begun the 2019-20 season with a then-40-year-old Marleau earning a first liner’s salary for ultimately sub-fourth-line production. Not to mention, keeping him around would have brought forth lasting consequences on the roster as well, perhaps even necessitating one of Kasperi Kapanen or Andreas Johnsson leave due to a lack of budgetary room.

Therefore, Dubas desperately needed to sell Marleau’s contract, no matter the cost. And that’s exactly what he did. But it didn’t come cheap.

As it turns out, the sweetener everyone knew Marleau would require came in the form of Toronto’s 2020 first-round pick, which the Carolina Hurricanes pried from Dubas’s iron-clad grasp. That is undoubtedly a steep price to pay in any circumstance without gaining a useable asset back, and yet, it’s value becomes more and more positive upon breaking the move down incrementally.

The Leafs pulled the trigger on this Marleau deal to maintain their contender status. This is a good hockey team, after all. Good enough that, even if Toronto finishes this upcoming season in a similarly disappointing fashion as this past one, that first will likely land in the mid-to-low-20s. Suddenly, the margin of difference between forfeiting a first-round pick and a second-round pick to open up over $6 million worth of cap space closes.

It’s a risky gamble, don’t get me wrong. But it’s one the Maple Leafs, and Dubas, had to make.

Quickly parlaying that newly available space into long-term extensions for both Kapanen and Johnsson which keep them locked in at respectively cost-effective price tags for the next several years? Well, that’s just icing on the cake.

According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, Kapanen is expected to sign a three-year extension with the Maple Leafs for a reported AAV of $3.2 million, while Johnsson’s own new deal is reported to be of the four-year, $3.4 million AAV variety.

In a world in which Kevin Hayes can pull in seven years at more than $7 million per, locking down this pair of talented young wingers for a combined cap hit less than that of Hayes’ alone is a bonafide steal. Suddenly, the Maple Leafs swap out one player whose on-ice production is in a light-speed plummet and plug in two whose respective values are skyrocketing.

Not too shabby.

Of course, there is still work to be done. Perhaps the most obvious player many had assumed would be dealt over the weekend, Nikita Zaitsev, remained in blue and white and continues to register on the payroll at $4.5 million for the next five years. Zaitsev will likely find a new home before the Maple Leafs open their training camp in September. Both him and Leafs are in agreement that he needs to move on. Nevertheless, his cap hit still lingers a week before July 1st, therein preventing Dubas right now from potentially retaining the services of, say, Jake Gardiner.

And then there’s Mitch Marner, who I have absolutely no interest in commenting on.

Regardless of whether or not Dubas cleared the deck of all high-importance tasks over draft weekend (he didn’t), it’s still hard not to be happy with the end result.

Thanks for reading!